


A Bath Helps More Than Anyone Originally Thinks

by gin_and_peonies



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluffy as hell, Implied Susan Bones/Hannah Abbott, Lame Confessions of Teenaged Love, Prefects' Bathroom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 19:10:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7281121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gin_and_peonies/pseuds/gin_and_peonies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>June has had enough studying and trades Hannah a favor for the prefects' bathroom's password.  Maybe now she'll be able to relax.  She did not think that all the way through however.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bath Helps More Than Anyone Originally Thinks

**Author's Note:**

> first fic up on AO3; i hope this isn't too OOC. i'm working on grasping characters right now. I hope y'all enjoy the story!

She was never good at studying, and she felt like staying in the library this late with no studying skills was a bit of an exaggeration at best and a complete lie to herself if she was being perfectly honest, so she turned her head from her Transfiguration textbook to look at the girl next to her. Hannah Abbott was always studying, seemingly had that skill down pat, and had a plan for how she was going to finish her 15-inch Potions essay by tomorrow morning.

“Hannah,” she tried, desperate for a private and relaxing bath on this cold, rainy October night, “what do I have to do to get you to give me the Prefect’s bathroom password?”

Hannah looked irritated, then quickly ducked her head closer to her housemate, “You let me and Susan have the dormitory til 2 tonight and when we go to Hogsmeade on Halloween weekend, you keep your mouth shut about her wanting to go to Madam Puddifoot’s. Just because you think it’s tacky doesn’t mean she does.”

“I swear to god I would spit shake on that, but you’re bound to throw a fit, and I promise you I will stay out all night tonight if you give me that password - I’ll sleep on a couch in the common room,” she lets out in a rush of happiness, crossing her heart.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She puts on the tap for water, drawing the bath in her kelly green thigh-highs, pale pink high-waisted knickers, and her favorite black balconette bra that had pastel-colored pansies embroidered along the top of the cups. She loved her underwear, lounging in the bathroom by herself reading in it; it was a practice in self-love for her. She breathed in deeply as she pressed the taps, releasing rose and lilac scented oils into the bath water.

She didn’t sink into the pool-sized bath until the whole bathroom smelled like flowers and bubbles were floating all around. The mermaid set in stained glass had turned away from her in a huff - she wanted to believe it was because the damned twit was either jealous of her lingerie or upset with what was being interpreted as vanity.

She was reading in the shallow end of the bath, hair twisted up above her neck (above the water) with her ebony wand when she heard the door open, click shut. She stayed silent as she looked over, expecting Hannah Abbott to be the one leaning against the door. Instead, with his face covered in a deep-red blush, Draco Malfoy stared back at her. Her green eyes found his and stared back at him in shock before turning back to her book; she was covered in thick Hollywood style bubbles.

She would be damned if he ruined her bath - she felt terrible, she was so tired, she deserved this! Turning a page, wondering why she was re-reading _Wuthering Heights_ instead of reading something new, she looked back up at him, “Hello.”

“Er, hello - I -” he tried, his voice strained.

“Oh, _Draco_ , you see, I normally would respond, but I’m reading. I don’t mind you in here, I suppose. I just, I really don’t want to be kicked out, yeah? I know I shouldn’t dread seeing my roommates, but well, they’re terrible to be around. I want to read and enjoy my bath. There’s no reason you can’t do the same over in that corner or something. We’re all adults here,” she finished. Most people were truly _not all right_ with him even being at Hogwarts, but she was so tired and this war was dragging on. And _okay, yes_ , technically she was fighting him, but he was not so dangerous looking right now with that mortified look on his face.

He was clearly eyeing the wand in her hair, so she sighed, put her book down, and took her wand from her hair and tossed it over in the pile of her clothes, “See, I won’t bite or anything. Momentary truce or whatever. Honestly, I’m about the most morally gray person in our year, I can’t believe you’re worried. And from what I personally can tell, you are pretty ambiguous yourself.”

He visibly relaxed, “I guess you can be in here then, but -”

She put her back to him, “Get in, yeah? You look as bad as I feel. A bath would do you good. Sorry it’s overtly feminine smelling, didn’t know I’d have company.”

She heard him laugh lightly through the sound of fabric moving against itself, “I suppose I’ll live. I would never have thought you to be so - toward? acerbic? - _Miss_ June.”

She smiled at the bubbles covering her chest and shoulders, “Do you remember when your mother would make us bathe together?”

“Junie,” he breathed, sinking into the bath next to her, much closer than she would have thought.

She turned to him, “I think about you so much, worry really. I know it’s been nearly five years since you’ve talked to me, but I just worried so much. I don’t have any idea what’s happening in that house of yours, but...but I know it’s not your choice. It’s not yours and it’s not Auntie Cissy’s, and to an extent it’s not even your father’s anymore.”

“Clover,” he said, grasping at something, anything to say to express how grateful he was that someone understood without pity, how grateful he was to know that someone outside his family cared enough to worry about them. He took in her honey-colored hair, curling tighter with the humidity of the bathroom, her heavy-lidded gray-green eyes, how she had grown into the lines of her face; when did she grow up?

She reached out to gently brush his hair out of his eyes, “Do you want me to read to you for a while, darling? Like I used to in the garden after our lessons? I have a novel, nothing school related at all and it’s muggle literature! _Contraband!_ ”

He nodded, lowering himself further into the water, bubbles up to his chin, “Clover, I’m sorry everything got so fucked up and confused.”

She turns back from getting her book, her eyes sad, “This war, this - this whole world we live in - it only means to fuck us up, to confuse us. You and I, we...well, we’re here aren’t we? We’ve apologized, explained enough for who we are. I’m here. I’ll always - Draco, I’ll always be here, okay? I’m hopeless, yeah?”

Her lips quirk up a little into a smile before it falls flat as she realizes what she told him.

“June?”

Her eyes flicker up to his, letting him know she’s embarrassed but also that she has been honest and then the water is rent between them and his lips are on hers, urgent and hungry, desperate for her to feel how much he wants to atone for his sins and his absence. Her eyes are wide before they close and she gives him every last bit of absolution he asks for.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading! :D  
>  -AML


End file.
